fashion trends

Posted on Jul 30, 2015

Sometimes you might stop yourself and ask how does a stylist comes up with a style for the season? The answer is fashion trends. The trends play an important role in the fashion world. We need to understand the mechanisms of the fashion system to take best advantage of the trend research.

The term derives from Latin tendentia and tendere, verb whose meaning is “tend to”, “to lean” or be “attracted to.” In addition to these meanings, the word trend also began to relate to the idea of ​​evolution. In short, we can understand a trend as an “evolution” of fashion that points to certain visual proposals each season. According to the Oxford Dictionary, the Portuguese Language complements the above concept to define trend as the “evolution of something in a particular direction.” A concept that believed the ability to change itself and the environment, an ideal state and necessary for the development of a human being. A meaning that can be applied in a way, as a concept of fashion trends. However, the Illustrated Fashion Dictionary defines trend as “general direction in which something moves or evolves. In fashion, a trend can be a style, a color, and pattern or patterned beginning to gain acceptance and widespread adoption. ”

Fashion trends predict what is next. Many variables need to be calculated to get the outcome. The work to achieve a fashion trend for the next season is known as the most arduous and calculative work. It also obtain a formula, which contains season> target market> consumers> colors> fabrics> silhouettes> texture> usage. The fashion trend include many features, which can be mood, behavior, buying habits, culture, beliefs, occasions, geographic locations, color, fabrics, style and those elements need to be dynamic, modern, about lifestyle and psychographic influence.

Fashion trend requires a lot of work. A specialist needs to be 18 months ahead of the schedule for the following season. They are lifestyle detectives. They need to be constantly vigilant, monitoring current trends and projecting forward. They also need to be observing the evolution of trends, detecting shifts in attitudes, mindsets, and spotting looks or lifestyle that runs against the norms.

Trends can also involve ethnographic research, which is the study of everyday life and practice. It helps a brand to understand how the demographic is changing, identifies new consumers, and enables brand strategies to remain aligned with their philosophy. It can also be influenced by marketing research that may be developed through several methods. Starting by consumer research, which defines the audience and their preferences. It can be surveys done thru the phone or by mail to determine income levels, lifestyles, fashion preferences, and shopping habits. It can also include consumers’ focus group, which determine pros and cons currently offered by merchandise, and in-store informal interviewing to assess what costumers like and dislike. Market research can be done to define the market, which is the study of the market condition, consumers´ lifestyles, and current events, art, and mood of the public. Sale research can also be completed. It is the evaluation of previous sales trends, rising sales, declining sales, and weak sales. Finally yet importantly, comparison-shopping, which is conducted by finding out current popular designer collections, review of fashion, publications, catalogs and websites, and observe the street fashion and celebrity wardrobes.

There are some specific source of information. One is trade publication that involves magazines, newspapers, and books about or for specific industry. The other one is consumers’ publications, which involves magazines that provide fashion news for the consumers.

The concept of fashion trends is on the analysis of what the audience wants for the coming years. In this sector, it adopted the concept of fashion trends to standardize production, increasing assertiveness in sales. Spinning industries, textiles, clothing and designers are based on technical trends notebooks and cool hunting offices to outline what they want of population for years to come. The result can be seen, for example, twice a year in Paris at Premiere Vision or in the largest fair in the sector worldwide.

Two trends group contains important differences. The first group is the bottom trends, mapping directions that will affect more significantly in all social segments, such as sustainability. The second group of micro-trends have lower socio-cultural impact, but can exert strong influence in certain sectors and behaviors. Fashion trends generally fall in this case, for example, the use of a specific model, color or style.

Ineffective across the organization in the industry, if the outlined trends were not generally publicized, it would not make itself visible and desired by consumers. The media appears as the main propagator vector, using news as the big parades leading designer and its brands.

The parades are also the main focus of attention when it comes to fashion trend. Even if the end goal is to sell clothes, the most important in a parade is presenting the concept and the trend of the collection. The parades are the imagination conductors, creating ties between dream and reality. For this reason, many unsuspecting wonder whether someone would wear clothes with so many extravagances. The exaggerations in the parades are a way to highlight and mark the memory of the people for a trend, hype that always arrive minimized in stores.

Currently the fashion trend follows a cycle. There is nothing unique but new proposals on existing artistic. These new proposals are based on the observation of desires and changing needs of consumers. The bureau of research relies on professionals from various areas to take the surveys very seriously. These seek the macro trends, or detect by observing the new behaviors of people and analyze which direction take the spending habits of these people. This initial research is much more focused on the behavior of people than in products. Only after that people’s aspirations will be translated into fabrics, colors, textures, etc. that are the fashion trends.

Trends hunters can predict what a group of people is aspiring and what they will desire in the future. These innovations are first presented in a style office for specialized professionals in different areas that can work towards their respective products.

The macro trends are very important to be analyzed, because these references are the key for those that will indicate the way to go in the season. Thus, these trends will be shown, first hand, in several fairs in all industries such as Fashion Week in Paris, Fashion Week, Milan Design, etc.

Some changes may remain for a long period and others may explode, however, they are all used and discarded in a short time. This fickle life of trends is known as the fashion cycle. Within the Fashion Cycle, we can identify different categories of trends by examining the life of the trend and the speed of the rise and the decline of the adoption period. A trend may prove to be a style or can simply be forgotten quickly, as we noted in fads.

There are three theories of fashion leadership:

Trickle Down: The fashion spreads from the top down, that is, is launched on the runways and falls in popular taste.

Trickle Across: The fashion spreads among all groups at once, like a collective fever.

Trickle Up: Fashion arises between small groups and rises to the walkways, as in the case of the punks from England that inspired the designer Vivienne Westwood and became a style.

Everyday fashion industry research has an important role to reveal concepts through new clothing proposals, serving better consumers ‘wishes, which is a great advantage for industries seeking status in the competitive market. Above all, the research stimulates the mind and opens new ways to the designer. The role to success in the fashion trend: you need to introduce the right product in the right place at the right time.